Success Stories - A Physician’s story - Part 2
Now, at the “tender” age of 17 he had fallen from the height of the tree and broken his legs, hip and skull. Funny thing, I always thought he had a thick skull.
Naturally, my family was required to call for an ambulance and take him to the hospital where he had to have surgery to repair his legs and hip. After the surgery the doctor was culminant: He would not walk for at least 4 months so my parents needed to hire additional help to keep “Baby Huey” tended to with all his needs and demands: water, bathroom and so on.
As you can imagine, my dreams and hopes for a future in medicine went “poof!” with every word the doctor told us. I stormed furious into my brother’s room with the very intention to give him a piece of my mind, as I entered, he started laughing as he often did when he tried to reduce the seriousness of any dumbness he had done. As soon as he saw my furious face he changed and asked, truly worried, what did happened. I told him struggling to hide my anger against him and the whole situation as well as my own frustration to see my dreams scattered to the wind.
He apologized with tears in his eyes and said he did not think things through (no wonder!) of course, he had not counted on falling off the blessed tree and on taking away my dreams and hopes for the future. How could I stay mad at him? All I could do after his tears and apologies is to embrace him and silently comfort him as I tried to ponder all my possibilities… Maybe enter as an EMT while I could save enough money to continue medical school, or forget it altogether and look for a job.
My brothers entered the room while my parents went home for a shower, some rest and a meal and started discussing the things to be doing next. My older brothers were all married and they could pitch in some, but not enough to cover all the medical bills of my brother and my medical school tuition.
We were so focused on our discussion that we did not noticed the doctor standing there listening to us. He intervened and told me that he was a student that required financial assistance to be ale to finish his medical school.